The Golden
Lion Tamarin is one of the most endangered mammals
in the world. This Tamarin monkey is nearly extinct
primarily because of its magnificent mane. Poachers
desire this monkey's hide as they can sell for as
much as twenty thousand dollars on the black
market! This species of tamarin's hair is the color
most people call strawberry blond, but redder. The
thick coat of fur is longer around this monkey's
bare, grayish face compared to its medium to long
length body hair. The texture of the fur is silky,
almost like a young cat or kittens. The mane
around the face looks like a lions, and that's how
it got its name, Golden, describing it

has golden reddish mane, Lion because the fur around its
face looks similar to a lions, and Tamarin as that is what
species of monkey they are.

The Golden Lion
Tamarin's eye's are quite large, and are hazel to dark brown
colored. The nostrils on the face of this tamarin have very
wide spacing. Looking at its entire face it is bare, flat,
and the head, throat, ears, cheeks and shoulders are
decorated with golden fur. The shape of this Tamarin's head
is round and small, but the mane gives it a larger
appearance. Their body types are slender, due to the fact
that they weigh one to two pounds (14-29 oz). The Golden
Lion Tamarins body has the shape of a small cat, and a
squirrel combined. As easy as we lift a finger these
acrobatic creatures are able to jump like a cat a space of
fifteen feet between two trees; and their squirrel features
are evident looking at their bodies: a tail (12.5-16 in.)
longer than their head and bodies put together (8-14 in.):
and little paws with sharp little claws. Their hands are
like ours with five fingers, are long and thin, and unlike
human hands their hands are webbed slightly and instead of
flat fingernails Golden Lion Tamarin's have long
claws.

Golden Lion Tamarin
live in the coastal lowland Amazon rainforest of Brazil. The
exact latitude and longitude would be Latitude: 5 degrees N
- 15 degrees S Longitude: 35 degrees W - 65 degrees W. This
monkey's habitat of lush rainforest is usually in the canopy
layer, which holds plants such as grasping vines, thorn
clung trees and dangling mosses, ferns, cacti, orchids,
vines, and bromeliads. In fact ninety percent of the worlds
vines are in the rain forest.

Golden Lion Tamarin
have very strong legs which allow them to be very good

climbers. They use
their amazingly strong legs to climb into their nests up in
trees, where a family of Golden Lion Tamarins would normally
sleep huddled together in a tree hole or thick nest of
vines. In order to have protection against predators Golden
Lion Tamarins share their homes with other Tamarin families.
Another characteristic which adapts Golden Lion Tamarin to
its environment is its long, sharp claws, that help them
pick out bugs from dead logs, small tree holes, and wherever
else bugs live.

Out of all of the
arthropods (insects, spiders etc.) that Golden Lion Tamarins
eat, one of their favorites is crickets. These Tamarins are
diurnal hunters, and since they are Omnivore's they eat
other varieties of food, such as the fruit of the rainforest
and very small birds. They obviously have many predators,
observing how endangered they are. Their predators consist
of poachers, snakes, ocelots, bamboo rats, wild dogs, and
owls. Since they are social and family loving, to protect
themselves from predators they mob their predators. They are
usually with groups of two to eight family members. Also
when they are alone in a tree and an owl comes swooping
over, as a survival strategy they flatten themselves against
the tree, and grip the tree as hard as they can.

The Golden Lion
Tamarin's gestation period is 125-132 days, and usually one
or two offspring are born. If two are born they are most
often non-identical twins. When these Tamarins are born they
are covered all around with fur and their eyes are unusually
open. For the first few weeks of these little babies lives
they will cling to their mothers fur. After about four weeks
these tiny babies are ready to eat solid food, and at three
to five months old they can be on their own, but separated
from their family for too long, they can die of loneliness.
Golden Lion Tamarin fathers play a dominant roles in raising
young. The young stay with the father until they're ready to
nurse with the mother, and then, when they're finished they
go back with the father again. The older siblings of the
young Golden Lion Tamarins help teach and raise them also.
At about fifteen months the mother sends the daughter away
to find her own family to live with, in order for incest not
to happen. The father does the same thing to a son who's
sexually matured. Golden Lion Tamarins can live
approximately ten to twelve years, and approximately
twenty-three years in captivity.

For many happy years
the Golden Lion Tamarin was classified as the most common of
Tamarins in captivity. Now their status is extremely
endangered and they are not the most common tamarin in
captivity. In fact only about four-hundred Golden Lion
Tamarin remain in their wild rainforest habitat! Their
endangered lifestyle can be explained by a few different
reasons. The pet trades poachers are ravaging this tamarin's
numbers and will try and sell one for twenty thousand
dollars, risking two years in jail. Also, Golden Lion
Tamarins live in an endangered ecosystem, have predators
hunting them every way they look, are harassed with
parasites, and have few dependable food sources. This
Tamarin is protected by the Washington National Zoo
Reintroduction Program (headed by Ben Beck), because the
National Zoo helps breed these creatures. When they have
enough of them, they hold their little hands, and walk them
back out into their wild habitat. Sadly, only 30% survive.
Golden Lion Tamarins are also protected by the Chicago
Brookfield Zoo, and a pair of Golden Lion Tamarins have been
released into the Amazon Rain forest by the Oregon Zoo.
Beautiful, furry, little creatures like the Golden Lion
Tamarin should be kept alive and we should put in every
effort to protect them from harmful references.